Before you start scanning, it would be a good idea to configure the program’s scanning and file saving options. Click on the ‘Open configuration screen’ button in the main screen (see figure 1 page 8). The following configuration panel will be displayed:
Figure 10: Scanner configuration panel
The configuration panel first tab is the Automation tab. Here you can set various parameters of scanning and saving data and images. The Automation tab consists of three main
sections:
• Data source
• Manual file save
• Auto file save
AUTOMATION TAB
DATA SOURCE
The Data Source section determines the data input source: Scanners, magnetic strip or image file.
Checking the ‘Scanner’ option does the following:
• Sets the scanner as the input image device.
• Sets the Scan button icon to a scanner image in the main screen.
• Enables the lower checkbox, titled ‘Paper auto detection’.
Checking the ‘Image File’ option does the following:
• Sets the image source as a local image file from the hard disk.
• Sets the Scan button icon to an ‘Open file’ image in the main screen.
• Disables the lower checkbox, titled ‘Paper auto detection’.
Checking the ‘Magnetic Strip’ option does the following:
• Sets the Magnetic Strip Reader as the input device.
• Sets the Scan button icon to a magnetic strip card image in the main screen.
Disables the lower checkbox, titled ‘Paper auto detection’.
Checking the 'Automatic scan size' option does the following:
(This feature is available only if the ScanShell800\N scanner is connected!)
It allows for scanning undefined document sizes and continuous scan of the full length of the document. Once the scan is complete, the image is cropped automatically to its proper size. This feature is useful for scanning different documents of different sizes.
Paper auto detection - Checking this option will cause the scanner (ScanShell 800) to auto-detect document insertion and start the scanning and saving process automatically.
When using the ScanShell 1000 scanner, any of the scanner buttons can be pressed to start the scan.
If the ‘Paper auto detection’ is unchecked, the scanner starts scanning when you click on the Scan button in the main screen.
SCANNER BUTTON ASSIGNMENT
If you use the Scanshell 1000 scanner, clicking the 'Scanner button assignment' will open the following window, allowing you to assign specific document category to each of the scanner buttons.
Figure 11: Scanshell 1000 button configuration
To configure the Scanshell 1000 buttons:
§ Select a document type from the dropdown list of the desired scanner button. Note that an arrow is marking the corresponding button in the picture.
§ Click OK.
§ Repeat the selection for the other buttons.
Note: The scanner button assignment option is available only if auto-detection is enabled.
SAVING OPTIONS
Once an image is imported, it can be saved to a file or to the clipboard. Images can be saved in two ways:
Manual save: The image is saved to the hard disk or to the clipboard as soon as the user clicks on the Save button or immediately after the scanning, depending on user settings.
Automatic save: The image is saved to the hard disk in a predefined directory. Saving can be performed as soon as scanning is complete, or when the next card scanning starts.
IMAGE MANUAL SAVE
The scanned image can be saved manually either to a file on the hard disk, or to the clipboard. You select the file destination as follows:
Save to clipboard: To save the scanned image to the clipboard, check the ‘Save to clipboard’ checkbox (See Figure 2 page 11).
Note that the Save button in the main screen now displays a clipboard icon.
Save to file: To save the scanned image to a file, check the ‘Save to file’ checkbox (See Figure 2 page 11).
Note that the Save button in the main screen now displays a diskette icon.
Scan scheme : Select the desired saving scheme (single side, double side or two sides on the same image. If the later is selected, you can specify the image layout by clicking on the orientation button (Side A above B or B above A).
Default save type : Once Save to File is selected, you can set the default file format in which the file will be saved, by using the Default save type dropdown list. idScan supports seven image file formats: BMP, JPG, PCX, PNG, TIFF, TGA, PSD.
IMAGE AUTO SAVE
Image auto save is particularly useful for large batch scanning jobs. This option enables chain- feeding the scanner while image saving is done automatically without user
interference.
Scan scheme : Select the desired saving scheme (single side, double sided, or two sides on the same image. If the later is selected, you can specify the image layout by clicking on the orientation button (Side A above B or B above A).
Save immediately after scan - Checking the checkbox titled ‘Save immediately after scan’
will save the image and data immediately after the scan is done.
If the ‘Save immediately after scan’ checkbox is unchecked, the saving will occur on the next scan job (in the automatic saving option) or when the user clicks on the Save button (in the manual saving option).
Once the ‘Auto save’ checkbox is checked, the ‘File naming and type’ button is enabled, and clicking on it opens the ‘AutoSave file naming’ configuration dialog:
FILE NAMING
Clicking on the ‘File naming and type’ button will take you to the following configuration screen:
Figure 12: File naming configuration – Driver license
This dialog sets the naming properties of the automatically saved image files. The file destination folder can be typed into the ‘File Path’, or selected by clicking the File Path button. In the window that opens you can navigate to the directory in which you want to save the files. The file format may be one of seven supported formats (BMP, JPG, PCX, PNG, TIFF, TGA, PSD). You determine the file format in which the images will be saved by selecting the format extension in the ‘File Extension’ combo box. The file name is determined by the ‘Saving Types’ radio buttons as follows:
DRIVER LICENSE IMAGES TAB
Use this tab to specify driver license saving options.
• Save to ascending file name: The software will create a new file name for each saved file, based on a combination of the ‘Base File Name’ and the ‘Name Index’
that determines the value by which the index is increased for each file.
For example, if the ‘Base Name’ is set to IMAGE and the ‘Name Index’ is set to 1, the first saved file name will be IMAGE1.BMP, the second saved file name will be IMAGE2.BMP, etc.
• Save to a fixed file name: This method saves the image to a fixed file name based on the value in ‘Base Name’. Each new scan saves a new image file that is written over the previous scanned image file.
• Use file time stamp as file name: The image is named with the current time and date.
• Save to a file name using extracted data from ID: The image file name is based on the value of a selected field. Currently, the only option is to use the NAME field from the ID card. Accordingly, if the ID card belongs to JOHN SMITH, the saved file name will be JOHN SMITH.BMP.
• File name: Type in a name and select the start number with which the files are automatically numbered. Select the graphic file type to use .Click on brows button left of the path field, to specify a path for the saved files.
• When you are done, click Apply. GENERAL DOCUMENTS IMAGES
Use this tab to specify general documents saving options, see the paragraph above for explanations.
Figure 13: File naming configuration – General documents
LICENSE TEXT EXPORT TAB
Figure 14: Scanner configuration panel - License data processing tab
• Extract full image : extracts the complete ID card image and saves it as a separate file.
• Extract face image: Isolates the face image rectangle from the ID card image and saves it as a separate file.
• Extract signature image to file : Isolates the signature image rectangle from the ID card image and saves it as a separate file.
• Export id data to web: Export the scanned card data to a predefined web address according to the settings in the data.txt file.
• Extract ID data to a file : Extracts the textual information from the ID card image and saves it to a text file.
To activate these features, select the ‘License text export’ tab in the configuration panel, and check the appropriate checkboxes.
EXTRACT FULL IMAGE
The full card image is extracted from the ID image and saved to a file. The face image is saved under the ID image name (e.g. c:/images/ID-1.bm). To find out more about file naming methods, see the Image manual save and Image auto-save sections on page 25.
EXTRACT FACE IMAGE TO FILE
The face image rectangle is extracted from the ID image and saved to a file. The face image is saved under the ID image name with the .Face extension (e.g. if the card image name is c:/images/ID-1.bmp, the face image is saved as c:/images/ID-1-Face.bmp). To find out more about file naming methods, see the Image manual save and Image auto-save sections on page 25. The saved face image has the same properties as the ID card image (color scheme, resolution and file type).
To activate this feature, check the checkbox titled Extract face image to file.
EXTRACT SIGNATURE IM AGE TO FILE
The signature image rectangle is extracted from the ID image and saved to a file. The signature image is saved under the ID image name with the Sig extension, e.g. if the card image name is c:/images/ID-1.bmp, the signature image is saved as c:/images/ID-1-Sig.bmp). The saved signature image has the same properties as the ID card image (color scheme, resolution and file type).
To activate this feature, check the checkbox titled Extract signature image to file.
Note: The signature extraction feature is currently not supported by all the states. Appendix A shows the states that support signature extraction.
Using the signature extraction feature in documents of states that do not support it yields no result.
EXPORT ID DATA TO WEB
If you select this option, the scanned card data is exported automatically to a predefined web address, according to the settings in the data.txt file, located in the application (.exe file) directory.
EXTRACT ID DATA TO A FILE
The textual data is extracted from the ID image and saved to a user-selected text file. The data is organized in fields in a constant order separated by a unique character. The field separating character can be any of the following:
• Comma character “,” (default).
• Tab character.
• Custom-defined character: any single character from the keyboard.
Each ID scan (record) is organized in a single line. Each record has the following
ID number, License number, Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Issue date, Expiry date, Birth date, Sex, License class, Social security, ID image file name, First name, Middle name, Last name, Name suffix, Scan time, Scan date, Text line1, Text line2, Text line3.
Note: For a full list of exported fields please see Appendix E – Full Export Fields List, page 50.
Document type export strings
The document type is specified in the exported text file with the following (exact) strings:
§ When scanning driver licenses using OCR, the last fields will contain the string:
"Driver license (ocr)"
§ When scanning driver licenses using barcode, the last fields will contain the string:
"Driver license (barcode)"
§ When scanning driver licenses using a magnetic reader, the last fields will contain the string: "Driver license (mag)"
§ When scanning passports using OCR, the last fields will contain the string:
"Passport (ocr)"
§ When scanning business cards using OCR, the last fields will contain the string:
"Business card (ocr)"
Notes:
4. If a specific field is not supported in the current state, its corresponding value is empty.
5. ID number and License number have the same value in the US.
6. ID image file name holds the full path and name of the ID card image file.
7. First name, Middle name, Last name, Name suffix fields are generated by parsing the Name field and not directly from the cards.
8. Text lines 1-3 are extracted only for Chile driver licenses. These data fields are not extracted for other states or countries.
Important! This order is guaranteed to remain in this format in future versions of idScan. However, this list may expand in the future to include additional fields, as more states are supported.
These new fields will be added to the end of the list.
APPEND RECORDS:
The records can be written to the text file in two ways:
• Appending mode : In this mode, each new record is appended to the end of the text as a new text line. To activate this mode, check the checkbox titled Append
Records.
• Single record mode : In this mode, each new record overwrites the previous record;
thus the text file always contains a single record. To activate this mode, uncheck the box titled Append Records.
OCR TEXT EXPORT TAB
Figure 15: Scanner configuration panel – OCR TEXT EXPORT tab
By checking the checkbox, text extracted from the scanned card will be saved to a text file, which will have the same name as the image file (ending with the .txt extension), and which will be placed in the directory where the image files are saved.
IMAGE TAB
The Image tab lets you set various image scanning parameters as follows:
Figure 16: Scanner configuration panel – Image tab
Document size: The document size determines the size of the scanned area. This area is defined by the width and height values, as shown in Figure 11 below using the
ScanShell800 scanner:
Width Height
Figure 17: Document Measurements
Passport size - the drop-down list offers the following options:
• Full size (3"x5") Scan the full size of the document
• Data section only – Scan only the data section of the document.
Driver License size - offers the following options:
• ID card (landscape)
• ID card (portrait)
• Photo size (3” x 5”)
• Large Photo size (4” x 6”)
• Custom size: offers variable scan size from (1.85” x 2”) to (4.1” x 9”) (W x H). If selected, the Custom button becomes available, allowing you to define the scanning area.
• Autodetect size – the application will attempt to detect the document size automatically.
• MRZ section only – applicable to European documents. If selected, only the 2-3 MRZ lines at the bottom of the document are scanned.
Note: If the scan size is smaller than the actual document, the image will be cropped to the size defined by the scan size.
Color Scheme: Color scheme defines the number of colors used to display the image. In general, the higher the number of colors, the better and clearer is the image. Ho wever, please bear in mind that more colors result in a larger file size. idScan offers the following color schemes:
True color: 24-bit color image 256 colors: 8-bit color image
256 shades of gray: 8-bit gray image Black and white: 1-bit image
As mentioned above, more colors mean larger image file size. The relation between color scheme and file size can be defined approximated as follows:
File size = 2 number of bits
Accordingly, if a certain document scanned in black and white format produces a file of 50KB, the same document produces an image file of 400KB when scanned in 256 colors (or gray scale), and 1.2 MB for true color.
Resolution: The resolution parameter defines how vividly the image will be displayed. In general, an image that is scanned in higher resolution shows more details of the original document image. However, as with the color scheme – higher resolution means larger image file size. idScan supports scanning resolutions in the range of 50 dpi to 600 dpi, in increments of 10 dpi.
idScan calc ulates the approximate file size for bitmap format based on the current document size, color scheme and resolution. The result is displayed under ‘Image dimensions and size’.
JPEG Quality: Sets the image quality when saving in JPEG format. This value range can be between 11 and 100. 100 represents the best image quality, but would also result in the biggest file size.
TEXT STAMP
The text stamp window allows you to add an automatic text stamp to the scanned image.
This window lets you insert a text string and control various text parameters.
Figure 18: Text stamp configuration window
SCANNER CALIBRATION
With time, the scanner colors detection tends to change to incorrect values. This
phenomenon affects the text detection accuracy as well as the resulted image quality. For detailed instructions on how to clean the scanner, see Appendix C - Maintaining the scanner, page 46.
CLEANING THE SCANNER
Cleaning the scanner from time to time to improves the scan quality. For detailed
instructions on how to clean the scanner, see Appendix C - Maintaining the scanner, page 46.
PRINTING – PRINT TAB
IMAGE PRINT SIZE
Surprisingly, the printed image size depends very much on the graphic program used. In some low-end graphic applications (such as Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows), the printed image size depends on the image resolution. The more dpi – the larger the image size that will be printed. To get a properly printed image size, use a more professional graphic package (such as Adobe Photoshop) that prints the image in the correct dimensions regardless of the image dpi.
The Print tab has the following options :
Figure 19: Scanner configuration panel – Print tab
Image size as percent of actual size : Reduces / enlarges the image size from 50% to 200%
of the actual document size. Selecting the default (100%) prints the image the same size as the document.
Print data from driver’s license card: Places the data from the card under the card image.
The printed image and data fields can be selected using the appropriate check boxes.
Printing Font : Select the desired printing font parameters.
Printing custom fields : Allows you to print custom, user defined fields. This is useful for creating badges and for other purposes. Custom fields can be added in the OCR window, see Custom fields - User defined fields, page 14. This is useful to print badges.
• Click on the 'Print custom fields' button.
Figure 20: Print custom fields dialog
• Select the fields you want to print.
• Select Print label and data or Print data only.
• If you check the 'Clear custom fields' your custom fields will be deleted after printing (useful for a one-time extra marking of records).
• Click OK.
LIVE UPDATE TAB
Live Update checks for updates whenever you are connected to the Internet, and updates your program automatically with the most recent version of your program available.
Note: If you don’t configure your software for automatic Live Update, you can still update it manually using the Live Update button in the main screen.
To use the automatic Live Update feature, go to the Live Update tab in the configuration screen:
Figure 21: Live Update tab
1. Check the Live Update checkbox.
2. Choose the updating frequency:
a. Every time the program is started (providing you are connected to the
a. Every time the program is started (providing you are connected to the